Shinjuwan
by SCE2AUX
Summary: Following their victory over Selection University, the school ship of Ōarai heads over to the Hawaiian Islands for a couple of weeks. For Miho and six others, it's not quite what they had hoped for
1. Chapter 1

It had been a tight contest, but Pravda had finally beaten us. There had been only four supership berths at Port of Oahu, but the girls from Pravda had managed to get it reserved before Ōarai did. I was just happy that we would have enough motor launches to get back and forth between ship and shore without a whole lot of waiting. Or so I thought.

Following the match we had fought against Selection University, we had all moved back aboard. Anzu and the rest of the student council had graduated with the Public Morals Committee and all six of them would be going on to Tokyo University. Since one of the advantages of living on a school ship was mobility, it was decided that we would head east to the Hawaiian Islands for a couple of weeks.

There was much more to Hawaii than just Honolulu, but the state capital seemed like a reasonable place to start. En route, we discovered that Pravda had the same idea and as I understand, there was a lot of good-natured teasing between the two of us.

Anyway, with the Russian wannabes hogging the last available dock, we were forced to break out the small boats to deliver us the three kilometers to shore. To my dismay, and four others, we wound up as dead last in the line to go ashore, and ironically, we were all involved in sensha-dō.

Riko Matsumoto, whom everyone called "Erwin," was the leader and radio operator for our StuG III.

Yukari Akiyama, a good friend of Erwin and I, served us well as our loader in the Panzer IV.

Shinobu Kawanishi had finished her first year at Ōarai and she was the driver for the Type 89 I-Go, and already a top volleyball player.

Tsuchiya Kitamura drove the Tiger tank for Leopon team and is also a member of the automotive club.

"It's going to take forever to get aboard, never mind ashore!" said Shinobu.

"Don't worry," I assured her. "We won't be under any curfew for the next three days. I'm more concerned about the weather right now." Shortly after dropping anchor, a line of thunderstorms had appeared on radar. The ship could ride it out and not notice it, but since the small craft were built for only eight of us, getting back and forth could be a problem.

After waiting for a full hour, we found ourselves alone on the loading dock with no small boats available; all of the others were speeding away merrily. Considering that it was a six kilometer round trip, this might be a long wait.

My phone rang. I sighed. Offices for the start of next year had not yet been announced, but I knew perfectly well that Anzu had been pushing me to take the job of Student Council President - a job I wanted as much as Mako wanted four hours of sleep a night. Not bothering to check who it was, I answered with a cautious "Hello?"

" _Zdravstvuyte, Piroshki_! Ya need a lift?"

"...Katyusha!" Sure enough, I looked over the side and saw the Pravda commander pulling alongside with Clara beside her. We quickly boarded and after she embraced all of us, Katyusha shoved the throttle forward.

"Where's Nonna?" asked Yukari.

Katyusha sighed sadly. "She went on to Moscow State University the day after graduation. She never explained why to Katyusha, she could have easily have gotten into Tokyo." Katyusha smiled wanly. "I guess every team is breaking up to some extent. Katyusha will go to college in Hokkaido. And according to that Finnish thief, Kay got into Stanford."

"No way!" That was me. I knew Kay was extremely personable and would fit into American society easiry - once she managed to get the "R's" and "L's" solted out - but she never struck me as the scholarly type.

" _Da_! That was a surprise to us too! Heh, you never know." Katyusha then looked to the sky with some mild trepidation. "We have just over a nautical mile to go, but those clouds look nearly black." She attempted to throttle forward, but it was already at full ahead.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Erwin. She had pointed off to the left and I saw what appeared to be a funnel cloud dipping lower and lower.

"If you're thinking waterspout, I have to agree," answered Yukari. "Katyusha, do you want to head back?" The Pravda commander checked the GPS. "We're past the halfway point. We might as well keep heading to land."

A moment later the funnel cloud got close enough to the water to kick up a column of seawater and a loud whooshing howl filled our ears. The trepidation I was feeling deepened into fear as the waterspout didn't seem to move - but instead got broader and louder.

 _"Chyerte! Katyusha, vytashchi nas otsyuda!"*_

 _"Proklyat'ye, Klara, govorit' na yaponskom yazyke! Ya ne govoryu po-russki!"*_

I wasn't sure what they were saying, but it didn't seem very pleasant...or logical. It looked like the waterspout would maybe cross our path to the rear, but quartering headwinds and waves were hindering our forward progress.

"Gyaah!" The boat fell hard into a trough between the waves and Katyusha was thrown off the wheel. Tsuchiya helped her to her feet, but the loss of control was enough for the worst possibility to arise. I'll confess to screaming in terror once I felt the boat rising out of the water.

"Grab on to something!" ordered Erwin. Sea and fresh water stung our faces as the propeller screamed shrilly along with everyone else. Pale green lightning flashed about us and the smell of petrol and ozone filled my nostrils. This was no ordinary waterspout. The boat yawed and spun, and with no visible references, it was impossible to tell where we were going.

I heard nothing, but saw the ball of pale blue lightning come to rest on the bow - then flash with the brightness of a hundred suns. I saw Yukari's face, wild with terror, illuminated to the point I could clearly see her skull, and then blackness.

And then I felt a sensation of plummeting through the air, like an airliner in strong turbulence. Blind with terror and extreme illumination, we waited for the final impact - but we never felt it.

I wasn't dead; it wouldn't have been that painful. My bones and muscles ached like they never had before. The sun was shining, cooler than I remembered, but still warm, and it was either mid-morning or mid-afternoon, I had no way of telling.

And we appeared to be gradually sinking. I reached over to a more wild-haired than usual Yukari and woke her with a static electric shock to our mutual surprise.

"Miporin?"

" _Hai!_ Get everyone up, we're sinking!" She bolted to her feet and groaned loudly. Erwin and Clara were both stirring. The last to awaken was Shinobu and after she retched and threw up, we made sure she lay back down right away. With everyone bailing, we cleaned out as much water as we could within ten minutes.

"I don't think we are sinking, _moi druzhie_ ," said Clara. However far we fell, it wasn't enough to damage the hull."

"We're in sight of land," I said. Can we get there?

"Is that Honolulu?"

"Who cares?"

"That might be pretty important," answered Katyusha. "The GPS isn't getting any signal."

"Do you have a pair of binoculars?" I asked.

Katyusha reached under the wheel and pulled out a pair of 10x50's with Cyrillic print on them. Looking at what I thought was Honolulu, I was a bit surprised at what I saw; the skyline seemed somewhat lower than before, and duller. But Diamondhead was right there, unmistakable.

"The skyline looks odd - but that's definitely Honolulu. I swallowed, worried. "I think the storm might have hit them real hard."

"And where the hell is our _ship_?"

I whirled back around in answer to Yukari, scanning behind us, desperate to see what I was looking for.

" _Chikushō,_ " I swore quietly. And no sign of the Pravda ship in the port, either.

"Katyusha sees no point in waiting around. Let's see if we can get there." Katyusha hit the ignition and after a few worrisome cranks, the engine finally turned over and started. She gingerly pushed the throttle forward, the boat sailed forward.

"Russian technology," joked Clara. "Not always pretty, but it can sure take a beating, yes?"

As we got closer to Honolulu, the odd skyline came more into focus. The skyline had changed, but the geography hadn't.

"I have a bad feeling about this," muttered Katyusha, as we drew closer and headed past Sand Island searching for the Pravda ship. The cars weren't the streamlined vehicles we were used to seeing, but they were still beautifully designed...like something out of the 1950's or earlier. At least the city didn't seem damaged.

"Are they having a vintage festival or something," asked Shinobu.

"The whole town? Get real," answered Erwin.

Pravda's ship was nowhere to be found, and none of the berths looked capable of handling a ship of that size anyway.

"Well, we have to go somewhere," said Katyusha. "There's nothing to eat, we don't have a roof over our heads anymore, and eventually we're going to run out of fuel." She broke out a chart of the area. Waikiki Yacht Club looked promising - but when we got to where it should have been - it wasn't there.

" _Nantekotta i_?"*

Eventually we wound up backtracking to Keehi Marina and docking. ALL of the boats were vintage models that looked more or less brand new.

"We _are_ still in the twenty-first century, are we not?"

Truly, I was wondering that very thought.

We disembarked and continued to receive a number of odd looks from people who looked like they were out of the 1950's or earlier. We entered the harbormaster's office to register and pay for a few nights. The harbormaster, a trim middle-aged man with only slightly greying hair and a thin moustache, gave us a cheerful greeting. Since Yukari was nearly fluent in English we let her do the talking. It should be noted that even though I and the rest of my classmates took several classes in English as required by law, most of us weren't close to fluent.

"Good afternoon," Yukari said. "We have a six meter boat we would like to reserve a berth for, ah, three days?"

"Three days? I can give you a whole month for a dollar and fifty cents." Yukari smiled, she had more than enough for that. She took out her Ōarai Visa Card and handed it to him. The harbormaster looked at it questioningly. "This is very pretty, sweetheart - but what in the world is it?"

"That's a Visa credit card, of course."

"Do you mean a charge plate? Unfortunately, we don't accept those. Do you have cash?"

"Oh yes!" Yukari said eagerly. She pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to the man. He took it frowning, looking at it very carefully. "Young lady, where did you get this?"

"Oh, the bank on our school ship! But my parents gave me an allowance of ten thousand yen every two weeks. I just exchanged it for dollars."

The man nodded. "You're all Japanese, I take it?"

"Yes, we're from Ōarai and Hokkaido - except Clara," Clara gave him a wave. "Clara is Russian, from Novosibirsk."

The man again looked down at the bill he'd been handed and took a deep breath. "And what was the date that you left from Japan?

Yukari paused. "I guess we headed east on June the ninth?"

"In the year 2009?"

Yukari cocked her head to the side. "In 2012..."

"Then I won't call the police," he said as he went to his desk and picked up a newspaper. I noticed his hands were trembling slightly as he handed it to Yukari and we gathered around her.

"HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IMPLEMENTS BAN ON STRIKES"

"Soviets continue to defend Moscow"

(Thursday, December 4th, 1941)

I had no words, just a deep fear. Erwin placed a hand on my shoulder. "Miporin, you remember when Kay said that this was sensha-dō, not war?"

"Yes?"

Wide-eyed and voice trembling, "It's war."

TRANSLATIONS

 _"Damn! Katyusha get us out of here!"_

 _"Dammit, Clara, speak Japanese! I don't speak Russian!"_

 _"What the hell?"_


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I suppose one of the hardest things about writing this fic is getting into the minds of modern teenaged Japanese girls that would be in this position. I'm operating on the assumption that they are all decent kids who will earnestly desire what is best for Japan - Russia in the case of Clara - but they also want to get home to a secure and comfortable future. Please enjoy and review at your pleasure. Oh, and what happens next in this story may well be influenced by those reviews, nudge nudge, wink wink

December 4th, 1941. Four days before Japan would strike and thereby ensure a Japanese defeat in the East Asia war. My mind was reeling at what I saw and the shocked faces of everyone else indicated that they all caught the significance of the date.

Yukari handed the paper back to the harbormaster with a flat "thank you." He must have read our doleful expressions. "Ladies, are you all right?"

"Huh? Ah, yes...thank you..."

"You surely don't look it. I can't believe I'm asking this, it defies all reason, but are you really from the future?"

Yukari indicated the newspaper. "It looks that way. Is this really December 1941?"

"It certainly is. I'll need to see your passports." We handed them over. He examined each one of them very carefully, and then stamped them all. "I'm probably going to catch hell for this, but I am going to approve entry for all of you. Miss Akiyama?"

"Yes."

"Do you and your friends have a source of funds that doesn't imply you're from the next century?

"No."

"Then let me make you an offer. If you hand in all your cash...and let me use your boat for rental for the next month...I'll give you each a hundred dollars in cash that _won't_ get you arrested for counterfeiting."

I was stunned. I had no idea what the buying power of a hundred dollars was in the early 1940's, but this appeared to be an incredibly generous offer.

"Katyusha, does this seem like a fair deal to you?"

"It doesn't seem like we have much of a choice, Miho. I'd sell the boat if I had to. What are we going to do about this Pearl Harbor thing? This is not a good time or place for six Japanese citizens!"

I couldn't disagree with that point. "We'll talk about that later."

"We will accept your offer, Mr. Stephens." Katyusha handed him the keys and we all went back out to the boat to get our belongings. Mr. Stephens was stunned at the quality of the fiberglass.

"What happened here?" he asked, looking at the black scorch mark on the bow.

"We encountered some bad weather in 2012, that's from a lightning strike."

Mr. Stephens shook his head. "You're all lucky to be alive with a hit like that. But I think the scorching will add to the story."

Katyusha surreptitiously removed the GPS, it's not like they would be able to use it, but the radio worked perfectly and she spent a good ten minutes explaining it to him through Yukari.

"My customers will be fascinated. I'll tell them that it is a Russian prototype from Novosibirsk," he said with a wink to Clara. "Before you go, may I make one final suggestion?"

We all nodded.

"Look, you girls must know what the world situation is right now, especially between our respective nations, I could tell by your reaction to the newspaper. If you know anything that can save people's lives, I strongly suggest that you get in touch with the proper authorities." He held up his hands. "I'm not one of 'em."

All of us thanked Mr. Stephens, with Clara giving him a kiss on each cheek, and we headed into the Honolulu of late 1941.

"So boss, what's our plan of action?" asked Erwin.

Who me? I thought. Oh well, if she insists...

"...Number Two is that we find a place to stay for a few days. Number one is that you remove your cap and jacket. Keep in mind that your namesake is dominating North Africa under the orders of Adolf Hitler.* Our situation is bad enough as it is."

"Oh...yeah...right...heh heh," she said, blushing as she turned the jacket inside out and tucked the cap inside it.

Yukari, true to form, fished out a 2012 tourist map of Honolulu. We crowded around her, both to see the map and to conceal the glossy finish from onlookers. After visiting a few hotels that were too expensive and a few more that weren't built yet, we decided on one just on the outskirts of downtown Honolulu and rented three rooms for four days, with a crib for Katyusha. By now the sun was beginning to set.

Whatever else might happen, Tsuchiya was my teammate, and I hadn't really gotten to know her, so I would share a room with her, with Yukari and Erwin in the second and Shinobu, Clara, and Katyusha in the third. We decided to go out to do some emergency shopping. Though only Yukari was fluent in the language, we all knew the alphabet and could read it quite well.

We bought enough clothes for four days, and we could have kept going, but decided not to be any more conspicuous than we already are. We bought dinner at a quiet restaurant and headed back to the hotel, where we assembled in Yukari and Erwin's room.

"Okay," I said. "It's December fourth, nineteen forty-one. In four days, a few hundred Japanese planes are going to be bombing the naval base. Right now, German troops are approaching the capital of Clara's homeland. What are we to do about it? _Should_ we do anything about it?"

"Three days," said Erwin. "Pearl Harbor is attacked on December seventh, at 0748 Hawaiian time." She took a piece of paper and a pencil from the desk and drew a crude map. "Japan here, Hawaii here...this is Pearl Harbor. On November twenty-six, the _Kidō Butai_ , with the carriers _Kaga, Akagi, Sōryū , Hiryū, Shōkaku_ , and _Zuikaku_ under Admiral Chuichi Nagumo departed from the waters of Iturup island and headed east by southeast. Right now they would have made a sharp turn to the southeast and are nearly directly north of us, at about the same latitude as Tokyo."

"Assuming that we decide to do something about it," said Katyusha, "what is the best course of action for six patriotic Japanese schoolgirls?"

"And how do you balance that against what is best for my _Rodina_?" asked Clara with a smirk.

Erwin shrugged. "I can tell you what happens if we let events unfold: Japan dominates over half the Pacific, takes Guam, the Phillipines, Southeast Asia, a few of the American Aleutians, Wake Island and we get within striking distance of Australia...for six months. Then the Americans stop us cold at the battle of Midway and we spend the next three years retreating, we lose some of our northern islands to Russia, our major cities are flattened and of course we have atomic bombs fall on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oh, and we get to spend the next three years of our lives incarcerated." She gave a wry smile. "Any takers?"

"I'll pass," said Tsuchiya. "Suppose we were able to contact the fleet and were able to somehow convince Nagumo to turn around. What would happen then?"

"Nagumo would almost certainly be relieved of his post and court-martialed. The reason that we struck against Pearl Harbor in the first place was to ensure a steady supply of oil. America stopped exporting oil to us...and the most readily available alternative oil supplies are in the Dutch East Indies. The problem there is that ships would have to go around the Philippines - which right now is American territory. It's a tossup as to whether the Americans would attack the supply convoys, but it would be very easy to do so. Eventually, we would have to take and hold the Philippines - which we actually did for a few years."

Boy was I happy that we had Riko with us; this girl was a font of historical information. "Just taking Indonesia probably would have been the wiser move for Japan," I observed quietly.

"Probably," answered Erwin. "It's academic anyway. Nagumo isn't going to turn back. But I would give anything to see his face if we were able to contact him."

"Speaking of contacting him," said Yukari, "what if we told him that he must destroy the oil tanks, dry docks, and submarines and he followed through? He missed all of those before...or he will."

" _Hai!_ I think in that case, the war still ends badly for Japan; we just delay it for two years. We could probably get a foothold in Australia - in fact one of the British-Australian plans was to let Japan get bogged down in the northern half of Australia. And six of us still go to jail."

Japan losing a war and being occupied was something that had already happened, something that I never experienced and was a very nebulous concept to me. As I listened to Erwin's clinical analysis though, my heart began pounding. The thought of _going to jail_ , foreign or otherwise, scared the ever-living shit out of me!

"With the situation we have right now, what if we told the Americans what we knew? I'm sure we'd get some protected status, right, and maybe shorten the war?"

"Or it might make it longer, Miporin. Japan has six carriers. America has two in the Pacific. Suppose we tell Admiral Kimmel, and with the evidence we have, it would be easy for us to convince him that an attack was coming, hell they thought it was going to be four days ago. He sends out the Pacific Fleet and times the attack on the _Kidō Butai_ just as they are getting over Oahu. The planes attacking Pearl have no targets; they turn around and find Japanese ships now engaged with the targets they couldn't bomb in port. But instead of sinking the American ships in a shallow port, they now sink them in the North Pacific, so they can't be recovered. In the long run, the war lasts another two years."

"Perhaps," said Katyusha. "Maybe Kimmel just moves the fleet off to the side and the Japanese fleet goes home. Even the Kamikaze pilots were told to return if they couldn't find their targets: '"A pilot should not waste life lightly.'" Katyusha turned to her subordinate and squeezed her hand. "And this is your war too, Clara. What do you think?"

Clara shook her head in apparent bewilderment. "Until today, I can't have imagined I would ever have to contemplate something like this. _Sovetsky Soyuz_ doesn't even declare war on Japan until the last days of the war. My people are at war with Germany - specifically my great grandpapa and great uncles. As far as Japan actually winning is concerned - I think that is impossible now - would even Chi-Ha-Tan Academy wish to live under Imperial Japan. I have a feeling that sensha-dō wouldn't be a thing!"

There were some laughs at the last declaration. "You know, I would be happy just to prevent the atomic bombings," I said.

Erwin grimaced. "It pains me to say it, since I lost family in Hiroshima, but even that could be extremely dangerous, Miho. The horror of those bombs shook the world. If that horror was avoided...perhaps Kennedy and Khrushchev wouldn't have been as cautious in 1962."

"1962? Pardon?"

"The Cuban Missile Crisis. Or maybe the Berlin Crisis a year earlier could have set off a nuclear war. Or the blockade of Berlin in 1948. Maybe Truman follows MacArthur's lead in 1951 and uses nuclear weapons against China."

I sighed. This was going to be a long vacation.

 _1\. In actuality, the Germans were losing to the Kiwis at the time._

So, any thoughts as to what the girls should do? Ultimately it's my call, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.


	3. Chapter 3

After an hour of discussion, we hadn't reached any decisions about the upcoming watershed event in world history, so we switched to more personal concerns.

"You know," said Tsuchiya, "one way that we can assure that the Pearl Harbor thing doesn't affect us is to leave before it happens."

"I suppose that has two different meanings," said Shinobu. "Get back to 2012 or just evacuate Hawaii?"

"If we simply leave Hawaii, it'll eventually affect us. I was thinking more in terms of getting back to 2012. Does _anybody_...have _any_ idea of how we might accomplish that?"

Erwin shook her head. "The only thing I can think of is to talk to Albert Einstein, and I believe he is in Princeton - that way" pointing northeast. "On the other side of the continent. There's no commercial jets available before 1960, I think. By the time we got to Princeton, we'd be headed for an internment camp."

"I wish Mako were here," said Yukari. She'd know what to do!"

We all laughed at that. "Mako is a teenaged girl, Yukari," I said. "She's brilliant, but she wouldn't have nearly enough training to help us - to say nothing of a few generations of computer and research equipment." At that, Yukari gave me an angry look, one I hadn't seen since she had snuck onto the Saunders ship and nearly forgot to turn off the camera before changing. "Though I'm sure she would be a great physicist if she wanted to be," I offered apologetically. "Look, it's been a bizarre day for us all. Let's get some sleep."

"That's a good idea," said Erwin, "but I think a decision has to be made early tomorrow. As time passes, we start losing options." We all agreed that Erwin was right; we'd be up tomorrow at six and decide by eight.

I heard the knocking on the door; it seemed only moments after my head hit the pillow...

 _ **knockknockknock**_ "Miho!"  
 _ **knockknockknock**_ "Miho!"  
 _ **knockknockknock**_ "Miho!"

Unbelievable, I thought. "Coming Katyusha." I groaned as I looked at the clock, it was thirty-four minutes after six. Tsuchiya looked at me, amused. "Did she actually just..."

"Yeah. Want the shower first?"

"I would, thanks."

After showering, we all met back in Yukari and Erwin's room.

"So," said Tsuchiya, "obviously we didn't just wake up and discover that it was only a bad dream. I'd like to suggest that we all write what we should do on a secret ballot."

"Good idea," agreed Katyusha. "What are the options?"

"Um...OK. Number one is that we do nothing and wait for the axe to fall. Number two is that we attempt to contact the Japanese fleet and tell them to follow up with a third wave attacking their submarine pens, fuel oil fields, and dry docks. Number three is that we try to tell the fleet to go home. Number four is that we attempt to escape back to Japan. Number five is that we contact the Americans and tell them what is going on. Are there any other suggestions?"

I noticed that Yukari opened her mouth, and then quickly closed it. Everyone else shook their heads. Tsuchiya tore a piece of paper into eighths, and handed a piece to everyone.

"Now I want everyone to take five minutes to think about it alone. Based on what Riko said last night, whatever choice we make is going to have incredible consequences both for us and the rest of the world. May the divines grant us wisdom!"

My decision was based on what I thought would ultimately be the best option both for the seven of us and for Japan. Just the same, I couldn't help feeling like I was being a traitor. After five minutes, we put the ballots into Erwin's cap. Shinobu shook them up and Clara pulled them out one by one.

"Number five! Contact the Americans."

"Number five! Contact the Americans...and write a postdated letter to Oorai and Pravda."

"Number two! Follow up attack."

"Number three! Tell the fleet to go home."

"Number three! Tell the fleet to go home."

"Number two! Follow up attack."

I took a deep breath. "We have a three-way tie. I guess we'll do whatever comes next." I supposed nobody had any intention of sitting around. Clara turned her head and reached into the cap to draw.

"Number five! Contact the Americans!"

This, as one may have surmised, was my choice. I saw it as giving the seven of us more options and a better chance of working to Japan's benefit in the long run. But before we did anything, I wanted to find out exactly what Pearl Harbor was doing in the event of...

"You all realize that we will be guilty of high treason if we follow through on this, don't you?"

"Katyusha, Japan doesn't have a law against treason in the 21st century..."

"But it does _now_ , Yukari! Japanese are going to _die_ if we tell the Americans!"

"I agree with Katyusha," said Tsuchiya. "Whatever laws are in place now or seventy years from now, the fact remains that we are betraying our homeland by telling the Americans."

"Are you really?" asked Clara. "Is opposing martial rule for Japan really a betrayal of your national spirit? But I am Russian, and it is not really my business. Still, I ask that you at least consider my words."

"You know," said Erwin, "we _did_ vote on the matter."

"Perhaps we should vote again. But since my country is not involved, I shall abstain."

"Fine Clara," said Shinobu. "But Erwin, since you said that Nagumo wouldn't return no matter what we say, and that nobody wants to sit around or evacuate to Japan, let's limit the vote to "press the attack' or "tell the Americans.'"

Naturally, that vote ended in a 3-3 tie, with Erwin joining Yukari and me.

"Okay," I said. "Now we know where we stand. Why do you think that Japan can defeat the Americans?"

"They have been beaten before, Miho. Look at Vietnam, look at Iraq, look at Saunders."

"I don't think Saunders counts, Shinobu." said Clara

"I don't think Iraq does either," said Erwin. "I would have told the _Kidō Butai_ to go home and concentrate on securing Southeast Asia and the South Pacific for Japan. But the Rubicon has been cast, _ālea iacta est_ , the die has been crossed..."

"Um..." I started to interrupt.

"Forget it, she's rolling."

"- and there is really nothing that we can do to stop it!"

"So let's follow through on the attack!" said Katyusha. "Maybe the third wave is the only thing we need to discourage the Americans!"

"It is not that simple Katyusha," answered Erwin. "The American defenses would be more than ready for a third wave; historically most of our planes were lost on the second attack. The Japanese would need to take time to refuel and rearm, meaning that coming back from the third wave, they would be landing at night in deteriorating weather - which is a risky operation even in the 21st century - and we really don't have the equipment for it. It would also mean pushing our fuel reserves to the limit."

"But it would also mean that we delay the Americans by more than a year, wouldn't it? We can secure the Philippines and a supply of oil and finish off China, and South Asia. We could meet the Germans in India!"

"And then the Germans could finish off the Soviet Union!" I said with mock enthusiasm. Katyusha blanched. "Sarcasm does not become you, _Mihosha."_

Erwin sighed. "Delaying American entry in the Greater East-Asian War only means more atomic bombs on Japan in the long run, especially since Americans, quite understandably, see the raid on Pearl Harbor as a surprise attack. To an extent, they still haven't let it go."

"You know," said Shinobu quietly, "no matter what we decide, it is likely that we won't be able to return to our proper time period for a very long time. I don't know exactly what the Americans will decide to do with us...but we may very well have the opportunity to help defeat Nazi Germany."

"And as much as I admire Rommel's skill and tactics...and face" said Erwin with a Saori-like smile, "I have no desire to give his boss any assistance. 'Honorary Aryan' or not, I'd feel more honored by fighting against him."

Katyusha bowed her head, nodding. "I would too," she said quietly.

We voted a third time with no abstentions, and unanimously decided to notify the Americans.

With the decision made, the question was who to tell. We considered putting an ad in the paper, but realized that it likely wouldn't be published till after the fact.

"Admiral Husband Kimmel is in command of Pearl Harbor. If we did nothing, he gets relieved of command and demoted to rear admiral - which most informed people in the 21st century think is rather unfair to him."

"Will he agree to see us, Erwin?" Erwin shrugged. "Only one way to find out.

It took two taxis to deliver the seven of us to the main entrance gate of Pearl Harbor. There were two guards there; a Marine sergeant and a naval seaman.

"Good morning," said the sergeant evenly. Looking at his nametag, I saw that his name was 'Faulkner.' "Is there something we could do for you?"

"We would like to speak to Admiral Kimmel," I said to him somewhat haltingly. "It is about national security of United States and Japan."

"May I see your identification please?" Sergeant Faulkner went to both taxis, collecting our passports and returned to the small pavilion at the gate. I saw him looking at the passports, talking with the seaman and then saw him talking on the telephone. Throughout this, both of them kept at least one eye on us at all times. After about twenty minutes, Sergeant Faulkner came out and spoke to the driver in the taxi behind me and then came to ours.

"Admiral Kimmel is not available, but Commander Rochefort has agreed to meet with you."

"Joseph Rochefort?!" exclaimed Yukari.

" _Commander_ Joseph Rochefort, Miss Akiyama. Do you know him?

"Oh yes!" she squeed. "Well, I know _of_ him. I never actually met him before."

"I see." He instructed to driver to take us to the Officers' Club where we would meet the commander. We arrived at the Officer's Club where we were greeted by a young Naval officer in summer whites and several Marines, bearing the letters 'MP' on their helmets. I swallowed hard and exited the taxi, paying the driver.

"Good luck, young lady," he said with a wry smile.

The officer was obviously partly Japanese himself. "Good morning everyone, my name is Lieutenant junior grade Evan Iensada, my father is from Urawa, and my mother is from Portland. Due to the international situation, we do have to be careful, so we will be frisking and interviewing you individually while we wait for the commander to get here. Who feels uncomfortable speaking English?" The hands of Tsuchiya, Katyusha, and Shinobu went up. "That's fine, you'll be interviewing with me. The rest of you, just wait for your name to be called."

My name was called moments later and one of the Marines, a trim senior sergeant, waved me over to a picnic table, where, after gingerly patting me down, we both took a seat. I got the sense that they were treating us with kid gloves, they were suspicious, but they weren't going to frighten away juicy intelligence either if they could help it.

"State your full name for the record please."

"Nishizumi Miho"

"Miss Nishizumi, what is your date of birth?"

"23 October, 1995"

"You haven't been born yet?"

"Time travel, I not sure how." He took a deep breath, shaking his head.

"At least it matches your passport. Where is your place of birth?"

"Kumamoto-Shi, Japan."

"And what is your reason for wanting to meet with Admiral Kimmel."

"To warn about attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japanese Navy this Sunday morning."

His eyes widened. "Very well. I'd love to hear more of what you have to say, but it looks like Commander Rochefort has arrived. Just sit right here."

I sat there as directed and watched as he spoke with the other Marines who had finished their interviews. They were very animated and obviously excited. They were soon joined by Lieutenant Iensada and Commander Rochefort. After a brief discussion, the Commander waved us over and spoke to us in near perfect Japanese.

"Again, good morning ladies. I'm Joe Rochefort, and your stories all appear to match up pretty well. The US Navy does not have a protocol for dealing with war warnings from time travelers, so I ask that you all bear with us. For now, let's go inside the officer's club and have a talk.

We all sat down in what appeared to be a lounge suite, and Rochefort got right into it. "Tell me about this attack. When was it launched, who is responsible, and most importantly, what is the timeline?"

Erwin launched into a detailed description of what would happen on Sunday and in the US Capitol on Monday, including everything from the explosion of the _Arizona_ , to the capture of _HA. 19_. She mentioned that there would also be attacks on Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines, Wake Island, Midway Island and Guam.

"There is also at least one German and one Japanese spy in Honolulu. Mr. Bernard Kuehn is a sleeper agent for the Abwehr. Takeo Yoshikawa, who goes by the name of Tadashi Morimura, is here under the cover of vice-consul. He is not aware of the upcoming attack though, and I don't think Kuehn is either - but both will act upon it."

Rochefort listened intently to all of this, writing feverishly, his expression alternating between fascination and horror.

"Miss Matsumoto, I'm impressed by your encyclopedic knowledge...or at least I think I am, seeing as it hasn't happened yet, and hope that we can stop it. The big question I need to have answered before we go any further is why on earth you are choosing to betray your country."

"I assure you it was not an easy decision to make, Commander," said Katyusha. "If my friends and I didn't take the time to talk it over, Katyusha would have preferred to have gotten in touch with Nagumo and suggest that he launch a third wave to destroy the fuel tanks and support facilities. We think Japan would have free reign throughout the Pacific for at least a year. But we finally decided that Japan would have been defeated anyway, with even more people killed. That, and we feel it is necessary to oppose the Third Reich at any cost."

Rochefort indicated Katyusha. "Does she always talk in the third person?"

I laughed. "Katyusha-sama has a bit of an ego..."

"Hey!"

"...but she is a brilliant tank commander. And she's right, the decision we made today was difficult for all of us, but we don't want to support anything that Hitler is doing or will do. We also don't want our parents growing up under Tojo's militarism." I become very somber. "We would also like to ensure that we avoid internment over the next four years."

Rochefort nodded. "I understand. I can't guarantee anything Miss Nishizumi, except to Miss Baratynsky, is that the proper pronunciation, Clara?" She nodded. "You would be considered enemy aliens if the balloon goes up, but I'll do my best to assure that you are treated as if you are friendly. I _do_ assure you though that you will be meeting with Admiral Kimmel before the day is out if I have to drag the man here myself!" He turned to Katyusha. "Now she was saying that you are a tank commander..."

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: The first vote actually happened as it did by random selection, though I determined that Miho and Clara would be voting to notify the Americans.**

 **\- Doing the research, all I can say is that avoiding internment is going to be difficult to justify for our girls. It's a fascinating and deeply disturbing read.**

 **Thank you all who have read this so far.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Keehi Marina , Honolulu, Hawaii, 5 December 1941 - 1252**

"Mr. Gerald Stephens?"

"Yes I am. Can I help you, Chief?"

"Mr. Stephens, I'm Chief Petty Officer Mike Desmond with US Naval Intelligence. Did you meet with seven young Japanese women yesterday?"

"This is Hawaii, Chief; I meet Japanese women every day. But if you mean the girls I think you're talking about, they wound up renting out their boat for a month and I stamped their passports. One of the girls was Russian though."

"How much did they rent it out for?"

"I gave them a hundred each. In return they gave me their unusable cash, a little over a thousand according to the denominations. I kind of hoped somebody might be dropping in for it."

Mr. Desmond raised an eyebrow, "Why was it unusable?"

Mr. Stephens reached under the counter and pulled out a cash pouch. "Take a look at it. I don't think its counterfeit based on the paper, but look at how metal or at least something metallic has been woven into it. Look at the size of Andrew Jackson's profile. Most importantly, look at the date. Series 2009?"

Chief Desmond examined the note carefully. It was obvious that the note had most of the features of the 1940's twenty dollar bill and had evolved from it. The base paper was essentially unchanged.

"Looks like those girls are telling the truth. Did they say anything to you about upcoming events?"

"When I showed them the newspaper, they seemed awfully agitated. I told them they should talk to somebody in authority, then they sort of wandered away all wide-eyed."

"All right," said Chief Desmond. "Let's take a look at that boat of theirs."

 **Pearl Harbor Officers Club, Honolulu, Hawaii, 5 December 1941 - 1254**

"So we have Miho's team on the run and we're feeling pretty good about the situation, we managed to chase them all out of the town to the beach and we know we have our KV-2 tucked out of sight in the water. I give Nina the signal and this great heavy KV-2 comes trundling out of the sea. I don't know what we're feeding these girls, but they are able to load and fire these 152 mm howitzers nearly three times in thirty seconds. Nina can easily take out Miho's Panzer IV, the Hetzer, or Mallard team - but she manages to fire over them right into the hotel. They load up, fire another shot at one of the Chi-Ha-Tan tanks which misses and flies over them into another hotel. By this time the whole group is past them - they rotate the turret, which is just as tall as the main body of the tank - forgetting to adjust the base of the tank and the KV-2 just rolls over and buries the barrel in the ground!"

"It took them two hours to get all that sand and gravel out," laughed Clara. Joe Rochefort laughed along with Clara and Katyusha and I sat there blushing as the Pravda girls relived their beating us in the friendly match. I idly hoped that I might have at least one more chance at beating St. Gloriana in a match that mattered.

After we had told Commander Rochefort all we knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor, he immediately sent word to Admiral Kimmel and dispatched investigators for tangible evidence. It wasn't that they didn't trust us; we were assured that military decisions had to be backed up with material evidence.

We waited for over three hours before Rochefort received word that we were to be meeting with the admiral in his office.

Erwin gave me a wink as we boarded the bus. "I think I'll be able to defend a doctoral dissertation on the Pearl Harbor attack after all this is over."

I chuckled, "And if we persuade the right people, there won't even be an attack significant enough to bother writing about."

We were taken to fleet headquarters where an enlisted yeoman ushered us into the office of the Pacific Fleet Commander.

"Hiya Joe. These are the seven young ladies you mentioned?"

"Yes sir. Let me introduce Yukari Akiyama, Riko Matsumoto, Miho Nishizumi, Tsuchiya Eba, Shinoba Kawanishi, Kamata Satsuki, and Clara Baratynsky."

The Admiral bowed and shook all our hands, then leaned back against the front of the desk.

"Ladies, I want to tell you how much I appreciate your honesty and courage. We're going to be meeting with at lot of my admirals and captains and just talking about what you told us and what to do about it. Before we do though, I have to ask you if there is anything you've held back out of fear or concern."

We all shook our heads; I couldn't think of anything more we could tell him that would alter the situation.

"Very well. After this presentation, I want you to keep this time travel business under wraps. I know you can prove it, you have proved it – but just the same, I don't want the concept of time travel to be blabbed everywhere; not until we've spoken to the President about it, and getting to Washington might be a tricky business for a few days at least.

He and Rochefort guided us to a small auditorium where several obviously high-ranking officers were assembling. I noticed a lot of raised eyebrows and not so quiet mutterings about "Japs" and "Nips." _It's only going to get worse over the next few days on that point,_ I thought.

"Joe, ladies, go ahead and take a seat up on the podium. When you're asked a question, feel free to speak your mind. These are tough birds, but they're good men who want to protect their ships and crew." I sat in the middle, between Clara and Erwin and waited for Admiral Kimmel to call the meeting to order.

"Gentlemen, I'm glad you can all make it. You're all aware that technically, we have been in a war warning situation since last Saturday. We'd been expecting some sort of aggressive action by the Japanese Navy, and over the past week, the diplomatic situation has only deteriorated. Even so, since Pearl Harbor is about forty-five feet deep on average, we haven't bothered preparing for a possible attack in any meaningful depth. Has anyone here set material condition Zed?"

There was uneasy shuffling among the officers.

"Or Yoke?" More shuffles. Kimmel gave a wry smile.

"Of course you haven't. After all, this harbor is thirty feet too shallow for a torpedo attack, right? Now does the name 'Billy Mitchell' mean anything to you?"

"A raw deal, if I ever heard of one," muttered one of the four-stripers.

"I won't disagree with you, Captain Foy. MacArthur sat on his court-martial and was unimpressed with the whole business. But the reason for his prosecution is that a lot of Navy guys didn't like where he was headed when it comes to planes versus ships: the idea that a battleship can be destroyed by an aircraft dropping a bomb into its relatively unprotected deck or superstructure." He then paused, to ensure full attention.

"We have been blessed with an intelligence bonanza through the efforts of the seven young women sitting to my left. Miss Riko Matsumoto is going to tell of a battle that happened over fifty years before she was born. Listen and pay heed."

Erwin gasped and sat back, astonished. I squeezed her hands to comfort her.

"You're the best of us to tell them, Erwin. Tell them what they need to know!" She nodded and got to her feet, then made it to the lectern. Taking a breath, she began to speak, her English halting and accented, but her words were simple and clear.

"Three days ago, Admiral Yamamoto Isoruku of the Imperial Japanese issued a coded order to Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. In Japanese, it said 'Niitakayama Nabore 12-8.' In English one would say, 'Climb Mount Niitaka on December 8th.' Decoded, the order is for the aircraft of six Japanese carriers, now escorted by two battleships, two large cruisers, and about two dozen submarines and small escort vessels, to launch an attack against the Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor - as well as on Army Air Force bases on Oahu..."

Erwin spoke for about ten minutes, detailing the timing of the attack as well as what the reaction would be among the American public and the ultimate aftermath in Japan.

"Therefore it now truly becomes a world war, a war that America and her allies must win; not only for its benefit, but for the souls of those who are as yet unborn in the lands of its enemies. _Arigato gozaimasu_!"

The men applauded, cautiously. Erwin looked unsettled as she sat down.

"These ladies have agreed to answer questions," said Admiral Kimmel. "Let's not take too long though, since we have a lot to do in order to take full advantage of the break they've given us."

"The girl told us an interesting story, Kim," said one of the admirals. "Why do you think she's legit and not some Japanese double agent to lure us into a trap?"

"Everything Riko and the other girls have told us checks out. The only reason I would have reason to doubt them is their nationality. Is that a fair summary of your concerns?"

"And what is their motivation for telling us this in the first place?"

Yukari stood up this time, "Admiral Anderson, right now there are resistance groups, in Germany, the _Widerstand_ , manned and commanded by Germans, fighting against what Adolf Hitler is doing. Is it unreasonable to think that many Japanese would be similarly inclined? Commander Nishizumi and the rest of us fight mock battles in tanks in high school and college – but we aren't militarists like the current leadership clique now in power." She took a deep breath. "War between Japan and the US is now inevitable. We just want it over quickly and to our mutual benefit."

I stood as Yukari sat. "I will stake my life and liberty on the notion that there will be an attack by the Japanese Navy before nine o'clock Sunday morning! The only question is how you will respond and prepare."

"Thank you," said Kimmel. And we will definitely prepare." He nodded to his Chief of Staff, Captain William Smith, who immediately began handing out orders to everyone present.

* * *

 **NAVAL MESSAGE - NAVY DEPARTMENT**  
 **FLASH - TOP SECRET - FLASH**  
 **FROM: CINCPAC**  
 **TO: CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS, CINCAF, SPENAVO**

 **THIS DESPATCH IS TO BE CONSIDERED A WAR WARNING X HAVE RECEIVED INTELLIGENCE**  
 **REGARDING IMMINENT 7 DECEMBER JAPANESE NAVAL AIR ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR INVOLVING**  
 **SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TORPEDOES X ATTACKS ON ALL OTHER HAWAIIAN AND PACIFIC MILITARY**  
 **ASSETS EXPECTED X AS WELL AS LIKELY ATTACKS ON PHILIPINES, HONG KONG, SINGAPORE, AND**  
 **MALAYA X EXECUTE AN APPROPRIATE DEFENSIVE DEPLOYMENT X SHIPS ARE ORDERED TO**  
 **IMMEDIATELY SET MATERIAL CONDITION YOKE OR HIGHER X SPENAVO INFORM BRITISH X**

* * *

"As you can see, I've taken the liberty of informing the necessary commands, and will be notifying civil defense as well. My plan is to wait until the first bomb or torpedo is dropped. I don't want a shot fired until the IJN commits – and then we'll cut them down."

"Do we pursue, sir?"

Kimmel shook his head. "The Navy won't be chasing them, at least not right away. The Japanese task force will be nearly three hundred miles away, steaming back to Tokyo. Any pursuit would have to be from the Army Air Force, which is why I'll be in touch with Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows after we dismiss. When we return, I'll be inspecting the fleet, so be ready for that! Anything else? No. Gentlemen, you are dismissed, return to your commands, and make ready for war."

He then turned to us. "Do you have any experience with ships?"

"Admiral, we spend our high school careers on massive aircraft carriers. The smaller ones are seven kilometers long. Still, naval operations aren't really our strength, but if you want information about tank warfare now and in the future, yes, we're the ones you should see nowadays."

"I don't expect that there will be any call for tank warfare for at least a few months, Miss Nishizumi, but the army might be able to use all of you at Fort Knox. Would any of you be interested in something along those lines?"

Yukari asked, "America just began studying armored warfare recently, right Admiral?"

"I think it was last year that they started developing the doctrines, but we have a long road to travel first. Tell you what, stick close to me for the next few days and I'll see what I can do about getting you both protection and something to do for the duration."

Kimmel's words weren't especially reassuring, but they did give us some hope. We all agreed to meet with him Saturday afternoon.

 **Battleship** _ **USS West Virginia**_ **Honolulu, Hawaii, 6 December 1941 – 0930**

"Looks good so far, Mervyn. How have you set your watch sections?"

"I'm keeping us on four section duty, sir, but my gunners are going to be standing by on Sunday morning."

The Admiral nodded his agreement. "Now remember what I said about torpedo nets, we aren't going to be stringing them up till after dark."

"Understood, sir. Where are your seven lady friends going to be? My boys are getting jealous."

We giggled at that crack. Saori would have loved it. And Tsuchiya didn't help matters.

"Some of your boys are pretty cute…"

"Which is why I'm not letting them anywhere near you, Miss Eba."

"Yessir, thank you sir."

It must be said though that our presence at Pearl Harbor Naval Base attracted a lot of attention. Those asking were told that we were with the admiral as IJN "consultants," and I suppose that was technically the case.

"Just tell anyone who asks that we are anticipating an attack," Kimmel instructed us, "because we've been doing that for the past month or so. Let me give them the actual times in private."

We had mixed feelings about where to stay that night. Prudence would dictate that we get as far away from Pearl Harbor as possible. My guts told me that I wanted to be in the upcoming fight, watching history, however altered to unfold before my eyes.

"Yeah, right Miporin," scoffed Erwin. "You might also be watching your intestines unfold from your midsection. It's no spectator sport." Slightly smiling, she then said, "I want to see, too." A thought occurred to her. "You know, today President Roosevelt orders General Groves to start the Manhattan Project."

Admiral Kimmel overheard this and was sympathetic. "I don't think I want to know what the Manhattan Project is, at least not yet. Miho, Riko, all of you have been a tremendous help, and you earned the right to see the effects of your work. I've had some cots set out in the basement of CINCPAC HQ, you're welcome to stay. I'll drop in at five tomorrow morning to wake you up. You can shelter in place. Or, if you want, you can join me and watch the beginning of the end of Imperial Japan. But I can't possibly overestimate the risk you'll be taking."


	5. Chapter 5

**CINCPAC Headquarters, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – 7 December 1941 0502**

I hadn't slept well that night, but I must have finally drifted off because the next thing I realized was Yukari shaking me awake.

"Nishuzumi-dono, Nishizumi-dono, the Admiral needs us up!"

I moaned. _Time to get up, don't want to be late for World War Two_ … "Thanks, Yukari," I said with a deep yawn. Not even twenty years old and I already have my own Samwise Gamgee. I stretched and got up. The US Navy had been kind enough to retrieve our bags from the hotel, so I got into some fresh clothes. We had shopped practically the first night we were here, so I decided on grey slacks and a white blouse and flat-soled leather shoes.

It looked like I was the only one to have slept in. Yukari escorted me to the small dining room where everyone, plus a couple of sailors, was having breakfast. The eight greeted me and I sat down for a meal of grapefruit and oatmeal. Few words were spoken until the admiral made his way down. Admiral Kimmel grabbed a cup of coffee and drank it almost without allowing it to cool.

"I don't know about you, but I got about two hours of sleep last night. I had a good talk with General Short and the commanders of all the air bases. I expect that we'll be set."

"Will there be a counterattack?"

"They didn't tell me, Miho, and even if they did, I wouldn't be able to mention it to you. It would be the height of military discourtesy to divulge whatever plans they are making until after the fact." He scanned the table. "My responsibility today is to ensure the safety of the fleet and my men, to help coordinate the defenses, and most importantly to be seen leading, so I'll be visiting a lot of the ships as the attack is occurring. I don't think I need to repeat how dangerous this will be, and I won't think any less of you for remaining here in relative safety, you've already earned my gratitude. That said…who will come join me?"

"I'll come!" I said immediately.

"Me too!" said Yukari.

"Certainly!" said Erwin.

"Katyusha shall come too!"

Kimmel nodded. "The Jeep will seat four, so it might be…oh, Katyusha is coming, no problem then." We all laughed at this as Katyusha turned red.

"I think I might have grown half a millimeter over the past week," she said, crossing her arms and grunting.

"As for the rest of you; Clara, Tsuchiya, Shinobu, I talked with Joe Rochefort and he said that he would have a couple of jobs that you could do if you're interested. He'll be picking you up and going to a place that we suspect will be even safer than the HQ basement." The three nodded happily. "We're definitely interested, sir," said Tsuchiya.

 **Imperial Japanese Fleet Aircraft Carrier** _ **Akagi**_ **(** 赤城) **– 7 December 1941 - 0530**

The carrier rolled and pitched heavily in an active sea, with white spray breaking the darkness. Aircrews, up since four in the morning, struggled to keep the assembled A6M2's, B5N2's, and D3A1's steady on the deck. Commander Mituso Fuchida presented himself to his commanding officer.

"Admiral Nagumo, sir. I am ready for the mission."

Nagumo welcomed his flight leader with a firm handshake, "Fuchida, I have confidence in you."

The two entered Akagi's briefing room where most of the aircrews had assembled. A blackboard indicated the position of the Pacific fleet ships in Pearl Harbor. At the top was written _0600 – December 7._

Fuchida called the room to attention, and Captain Kiichi Hasegawa gave his final briefing, concluding with "Take off according to plan." The airmen rose to their feet.

"Commander Fuchida, there is a heavy pitch and roll. What do you think about taking off in the dark," asked Air Officer Shogo Masuda.

"The pitch is greater than the roll," Fuchida answered. "Were this a training flight, the takeoff would be delayed until dawn. But if we coordinate the takeoffs with the pitching of the flight deck we'll be all right." Fuchida saluted and left for his own plane. He was greeted by his maintenance crew officer who presented him with a white _hachimaki,_ upon which was emblazoned the emblem of the Rising Sun and the words "必勝"… _sure victory._

"A gift from the maintenance crews, Commander. We want you to take it to Pearl Harbor." Fuchida shook his hand and tied the headband around his helmet. He then boarded his own Nakajima B5N2 torpedobomber, listening to the din of multiple engines and propellers.

A green lantern was waved in a circular motion at the end of the flight deck and the first of the planes went to maximum power, and then rolled off into the darkness. Moments later it popped back into view. More planes followed, and Fuchida soon joined them. There were soon one hundred and eighty three planes airborne. On Mitsuo's command, they turned south for a 145-kilometer journey to Hawaii.

 **CINCPAC Headquarters, Pearl Harbor - 0645**

"Will this stop a bullet, Admiral?"

"That helmet and jacket will keep you safe against a ricochet, Riko, but not a direct hit, so try to avoid being hit by hard flying objects. And call me 'Kim,' you've earned it."

It was just over an hour before the attack was expected, but we were already seeing signs that it was imminent. Admiral Kimmel had issued orders requiring that all out of the ordinary events were to be phoned in to him directly, and the telephone had been ringing since three that morning.

"Oh yes," he assured us. "I've been in touch with Washington; they are awaiting that last part of that 'fourteen-part message' as Riko called it. Everything you've been telling us is fitting together so far."

A little before seven, a junior officer knocked on the door with a dispatch from one of the ships. Kimmel came back, smiling slightly and reading. "'We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges on a submarine operating in defensive sea areas.' Signed by William W. Outerbridge, Commander, _USS Ward_. Another piece in the puzzle."

We waited another ten minutes, and then Kimmel stood up, "Ladies, let's go visit some ships."

 **Aircraft Al-301, Just north of Oahu, Kohaku Point, 0740**

Upon reaching Oahu, the strike force turned west. Fuchida issued the order "Take attack formation." Level bombers, dive bombers and torpedo bombers split into separate groups, with the level bombers going all the way around the island, torpedo bombers flying over the western ridge and dive bombers flying through the valley.

Nine minutes later, Fuchida had Pearl Harbor in sight. There were no enemy fighters present. There was no antiaircraft fire. Fuchida fired a single flare that indicated that surprise had been achieved. Then, mistakenly, thinking that the first flare had not been noted, he fired a second one, indicating that they had not achieved total surprise and that the dive bombers were to attack first.

However, this approach had not gone unnoticed. A phone call was made, and within three minutes, on the island of Molokai, three squadrons of P-40's lifted off and flew west.

 **USS** _ **Tennessee**_ **– Pearl Harbor Hawaii, 7 December 1941 0751**

"Men, this is the Captain speaking. We are less than two minutes away from an anticipated attack. If you are not involved in combat operations or damage control, you will remain in place until you are ordered otherwise or until the all clear is given. All men at combat stations will hold their fire until given the order – then give 'em hell!"

Kimmel had joined Captain Reordan on the bridge. The four of us were relatively safe on Ford Island, but close enough to the ship to hear the announcement.

"So how long, Erwin," asked Katyusha, her blue eyes wide with fear. Erwin's expression was similar. To volunteer to face death is one thing, to follow through though…

"Less than five minutes." Her mouth opened. "Listen!"

Why hadn't I noticed before, I wondered, but there was the unmistakable drone of vintage airplanes heading this way.

"Let's…let's get behind something," Yukari said quietly.

"No," I countered. "Let's do something more."

I ran, motioning them to follow, and then slipped into the closest door and shouted: "Everyone take cover! The Japanese are bombing Pearl Harbor!" Yukari looked at me strangely.

"Nishizumi-dono, we really need to work on your accent."

As it turned out, the door that we had slipped into was the door to the lobby of one of the Bachelor Officer's Quarters. They were already aware of the situation.

 **Aircraft Al-301, just entering over Pearl Harbor, 0753**

 _No resistance at all_ , thought Fuchida. _Could it be this easy_? He grinned and turned to his radio operator. "Give the signal, Mizuki!"

" _Ryōkai! Tora! Tora! Tora!_ "

 **Location unknown, Pearl Harbor Area, 0753**

"There it is, _Tora! Tora! Tora!_ Sound the alert," said Shinobu.

 **Pearl Harbor Hawaii, 0754**

Air raid sirens began wailing moments after the first Japanese planes appeared in the sky over Pearl. The air crews didn't take notice of them as they were drowned out over the noise of the engines, as far as they could tell, they had achieved total surprise.

The first bombs fell on the runways and hangars of Wheeler and Hickham airfields. As Fuchida saw the first plumes of smoke rising, he began his torpedo run towards the USS _Maryland_. Battleship antiaircraft guns were notoriously inaccurate, except at point blank range, so the proper tactic was similar to what armies did in the 18th century, just fire a wall of lead from several guns and hope to hit something vital.

Less than a third of the way into the run, Fuchida felt his plane shudder and pitch. Oily smoke began pouring out of the engine and the control stick went limp in his hands, he never saw the starboard wing tear off as the torpedo plane spun into the water a hundred meters below.

Several of the remaining torpedo planes, flying low and slow, suffered similar fates. A total of thirteen torpedoes were launched, but thanks to the double layer of torpedo netting, only two found their mark on the battleship _West Virginia_ , destroying the rudder. Damage control began work within two minutes as water rushed into the holes.

After my shouted warning, the four of us ran back to the _Tennessee_ , the battle of Pearl Harbor now in full swing about us. Olive-green airplanes flew overheard chasing white ones. Explosions boomed in the distance, with several of them feeling awfully close.

"RUN!" I commanded, and we sprinted towards the grove of trees near the bow of the _Tennessee._ It was merely concealment, not cover, but better than nothing.

"The Americans seem to be doing well," panted Erwin. "I saw P-40's flying overhead, and the damage appears lighter than it would have been."

"P-40's, which ones are those?"

"The olive-drab ones with the white star, they seemed to be chasing the Zeros. Surely you know the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, Katyusha, don't you?"

"I guess I do. History was never my best subject."

Machine guns fired intermittently towards the sky and at the ground, and plumes of black smoke crisscrossed over patches of black puffs of flak. Fatally damaged P-40's, P-36's and Japanese planes dove screaming towards the ground, sometimes with a massive explosion, sometimes with no sound I could hear.

One would think that the bombers, having the most potentially dangerous loadout of all the attackers, would be the primary targets of the defenders, but a few had slipped into position unnoticed. Three of the few bombers remaining began a second attack run over Battleship Row.

"Look!" yelled Yukari.

A bomb fell from each plane. One fell on the _Tennessee,_ but as far as I could tell, never exploded. A second detonated on the _West Virginia._ The third…

"Get down!"

I dived to the ground at Erwin's words. Seconds later, I felt the blast as much as I heard it this time. The USS _Arizona_ rose out of the water with the sheer power of the explosion. In that respect, it seemed that history was unchanged. In another, it was different since three of my friends and I were hugging the ground as torn bits of steel, iron and other substances were flying over us. The explosion shattered the trees and leaves and palm fronds rained down upon us.

"Okay, no point in staying here now," I said. "Let's find a boat and offer whatever aid we can. Stick close to the buildings." We jogged south towards the docks, passing the homes of what must have been high ranking officers. Above us, the battle still raged. I heard an airplane behind us and recognized the black nose of the A6M…just as it fired.

"SHIT!" I grabbed Yukari and pulled her down and off to the side as bullets smacked into the asphalt and grass. Erwin dove and Katyusha staggered and rolled onto the ground. A P-36 followed the Zero, firing and twisting. Unlike the P-40 the P-36 was _almost_ capable of turning with the A6M, but the American pilot played it smart and was soon rewarded with an explosion in the Zero's port wing. The A6M pilot used whatever remaining momentum it had to climb as high as he could, and then jumped. The abandoned plane fell, smashing into an already burning building.

I didn't know the minimum altitude for a safe parachute jump, but the Japanese pilot was certainly pushing it. He was already two-thirds of the way down before the canopy opened, and I know he landed hard because he stayed down.

"Come on!" I said.

"Miho, wait," said Erwin. "Katyusha's been hit."

 **Imperial Japanese Battleship** _ **Nagato**_ **(** 長門) **– Hiroshima Bay - 8 December 1941**

A young woman's voice he didn't recognize had been interrupting the radio broadcasts from the fleet. She spoke perfect Japanese.

" _...and we sure hope Yamamato Isoroko is hearing us as well. We thought you'd like to know that your bombers did get a good hit on one of the older battleships, but most of the planes we're seeing in the sky now are American. Did you honestly think the Americans wouldn't be prepared? Do you now still believe you can 'run wild' even for six months. You ordered your subordinates to 'climb Niitaka,' but did you think to brief them on what they would find at the summit?"_

Yamamoto clenched and unclenched his fists in outraged bewilderment. How could she have known his words, his thoughts, as she did? The only reasonable explanation was that somebody, perhaps Prime Minister Konoe, had talked.

Another female voice filled the air; however, this announcement was in Russian.

" _On the day the fascist beast Hitler announces that he will suspend offensive operations towards Moscow, the Japanese Empire launches a suicidal attack against British and American colonies in the Pacific. Comrades, I am Clara_ _Baratynsky of Novosibirsk and I speak to you from Honolulu. The arrogant Japanese fools Tojo and Yamamoto have attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor and we have received reports that the attack has been significantly less successful than the Japanese high command would reasonably tolerate. Over fifty Japanese pilots and airmen have already been taken prisoner. Whether this leads to a partnership with the Americans to defeat Hitler, time alone will determine, but on this dark day in Hawaii, the Soviet worker may now see a bit more light!"_

Yamamoto spoke very little Russian but he was able to pick out a few phrases. Fifty captured, thought the admiral, was that correct? How many dead must that be? The torpedo attack had to have failed miserably based on reports he'd been getting from Nagumo. He noticed his name mentioned, as was Tojo's, and this irked him to no end.

 **Ford Island Docks, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – 7 December 1941**

"No," I whispered. "Please be all right." Erwin held a wide-eyed Katyusha in her arms; the smaller girl's breathing was shallow and rapid. "Hang on, sweetie," said Erwin, "you're going to be fine."

"How bad is it?"

"Hit twice, Mihosha, lower ribs. Really hurts too," Katyusha said wearily, though with a small smile.

By now a small crowd had gathered.

"Those girls can't be sailors," said a voice. "Can they?"

"We're not," said Yukari. "We're guests of Admiral Kimmel. Is he still on the _Tennessee_?"

"I haven't seen him," said several others. "Where are you girls from?"

Oh crap, I thought, here it comes.

"We're Japs," said Yukari, easily but firmly. "We've been working with the Admiral against the militarist clique in Japan to defend against this attack. Now could one of you please direct us to the hospital, our friend has been wounded."

The looks we were getting, I swear, you could have cut the tension in the air with a knife…

"I suppose you know that a lot of us would much rather put you _in_ the hospital, Japanese girl, if not a lot worse," said a robust civilian man. Then he smiled soberly. "But your friend isn't looking good and you seem pretty honest. The hospital boats are going all over the harbor, picking people up here and there."

We waited about ten minutes for boat, then loaded Katyusha and several others aboard when it finally came.

"What's her name?"

"Kamata Satsuki," answered Yukari, giving her family name last in the Western style, "but she goes by 'Katyusha.'"

"She's a Japanese national," offered one of the bystanders, "but she took a bullet on our behalf, so treat her good!"

"Of course we will," answered the medic, who turned back to Yukari. "We'll be taking her to the _USS Solace_ , a hospital ship."

"We can't go with her."

"Right now we just don't have the room, ma'am, we have hundreds of wounded as it is, maybe a thousand or more. We'll be posting notifications of visiting hours when we get the time to do so."

"I understand. _Arigato gozaimasu_ ," she said with a bow. Katyusha gave a weak wave as the hospital boat departed.

"What now, Commander," asked Erwin.

"Two things I can think of. First, avoid getting hit by flying metal. Second, avoid getting hit by flying fists. I thought we were as good as dead when Yukari mentioned our nationality." Putting my arm around Yukari's shoulder, I continued, "but it appears to have been the right choice. Third thing is, we sit tight and wait for the Admiral."

The first wave of the attack appeared to be over. Perhaps a dozen or more P-40's patrolled the area.

 **Imperial Japanese Fleet Aircraft Carrier** _ **Akagi**_ **(** 赤城) **– 7 December 1941 – 0850**

"Your orders, Admiral?"

The attack has been a disaster so far, Nagumo thought to himself. Fuchida had called in the signal for surprise, but it seems that the Americans had outsmarted him – outsmarted them all if those traitorous sirens on the radio had been telling the truth. Nine battleships at Pearl Harbor, but significant damage to only one? Perhaps a hundred planes lost. All the same though…

"The second wave will be arriving at the target within minutes, Hasegawa. Let us salvage what we can from this operation, recover our planes, and return home. If this be _hara-kiri_ , let's make the most of it."

 **Ford Island Docks, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – 7 December 1941 – 0854**

"Well it's time for round two," announced Erwin. "Everyone find cover!" We managed to win over most of the Americans, and I think we all appreciated the absurdity of our situation. There were a few skeptics though, and there were a number of epithets directed at us – but now was not the time to fight back.

American AAA and fighter planes met the attackers in the air before they managed to reach Pearl, but the Japanese fighters not only outnumbered the Americans nearly two to one, they were more much more agile. The American pilots sought not to engage the Zeros, but to destroy the bombers. The Japanese fighter pilots immediately targeted their opposite numbers and as the attackers entered the airspace over Pearl Harbor, the last P-40 was knocked out of the fight, though not before the American fighters had destroyed twenty-two bombers and six A6M Zeros.

With only ground defenses remaining, the A6M's began strafing runs to disable them, and whatever else they could find moving on the ground. Bombs fell as before, and I heard explosions going off in the distance. They appeared to be concentrating their fire on the other side of the channel, and with that apparently being the case; Yukari, Erwin and I assisted others in transporting the wounded to the docks for transport.

A wounded Japanese officer noticed my face. "You are Japanese!"

" _Hai_ ," I answered. "There are many Japanese in Honolulu, didn't you know that?"

"Well, yes, but your homeland…"

"Our homeland will suffer greatly for this foolish attack, Commander. The Americans will call this a surprise attack and will be justified in doing so. They didn't get the declaration of war – if it can even be called that – until after the first wave struck. The only saving grace may be that the Americans just happened to be training for such a strike." I squeezed his unburned hand to reassure him as they took him aboard. "Don't worry, you will be treated well. Farewell, sir."

It was a little after eleven in the morning when we were finally located by Admiral Kimmel as we led a dazed and wounded Marine onto the boat. After saluting and shaking hands with the Marine corporal, he embraced us.

"Where's Katyusha?"

"She was wounded, sir," answered Yukari. "Three bullets as we were strafed by a Zero, but she was smiling as she was being taken to the Solace."

"Is it over," I asked?

"I believe it is – for us," said Admiral Kimmel. But the Army Air Force is going to pay the IJN a visit, even the score a little.

"How many people…" I began to ask, fearing the answer.

"A lot, perhaps a thousand. Tsuchiya, Shinobu, and Clara are fine, but you'll want to talk to them directly about what they did, I think you'll be proud.

 **Office of the Secretary of State, Washington D.C., - 1420 EST**

"Ambassador Nomura and Envoy Kuruso? The Secretary will see you now."

Kichisaburō Nomura was unsure of what to expect. He knew that the note that he was giving the secretary was grim, and ice filled his veins as he saw the expression of Cordell Hull.

"Mister Hull," he said, fighting to hide the uncertainty he felt as he presented the document. The Secretary of State took the papers with a bow. He had already read the majority, but was curious as to how the conclusion would be written.

 _Obviously it is the intention of the American Government to conspire with Great Britain and other countries to obstruct Japan's effort toward the establishment of peace through the creation of a new order in East Asia, and especially to preserve Anglo-American rights and interest by keeping Japan and China at war. This intention has been revealed clearly during the course of the present negotiation._

 _Thus, the earnest hope of the Japanese Government to adjust Japanese-American relations and to preserve and promote the peace of the Pacific through cooperation with the American Government has finally been lost._

 _The Japanese Government regrets to have to notify hereby the American Government that in view of the attitude of the American Government it cannot but consider that it is impossible to reach an agreement through further negotiations_.

"Ambassador Namura, are you aware of the events that have transpired over the past three hours?"

"I have heard rumors. I am...shocked, and...dismayed. Are they true?"

Secretary Hull looked at his visitors with intense indignation. "I must say that in all my conversations with you during the last nine months I have never uttered one word of untruth. This is borne out absolutely by the record. In all my fifty years of public service I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions - infamous falsehoods and distortions on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any government on this planet was capable of uttering them."

"Mister Hull," said Namura, pleading. He couldn't let his friendship end like this... Secretary Hull only shook his head, weary and disgusted.

"Go," he commanded.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hospital Ship USS** _ **Solace**_ **– Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – December 7, 1941**

The ship was quickly filling up with the influx of casualties and the air was dense with the metallic odor of blood and the nauseating smell of burnt skin. His stomach turned when he saw the girl being brought inside. Tiny, with blonde hair, but with curiously almond-shaped eyes.

"What do we have here?" asked Dr. Campbell.

"Three gunshot wounds from a Zero, one to the lower rib sir, right side at the back, and one exit wound. She's been slipping in and out of consciousness." Doctor Campbell looked at the dark red blood that coated the corpsman's hands

"OK, get her on IV and blood transfusion, list her condition as serious." A triage had been put in place, and from what he could see, this girl – what was she, ten, maybe eleven – would go to the top of the list or close to it. "Keep that jacket on her for now!" No arteries appeared to be hit, he would have expected the blood to be much brighter, but that remained to be seen…

 **Pacific Fleet Headquarters -** **Pearl Harbor, Hawaii**

"Tsuchiya," said Kimmel, "turn to 122.87, and let's listen in. General Short said that our counterattack is underway."

" _Ryôkai!_ …Sir." Kimmel chuckled a bit at that. After finding the right frequency, we gathered around the radio while Admiral Kimmel paced between the radio and the telephone. Reports soon started coming in, first a trickle, then a deluge:

\- Damage report: The USS _Arizona_ had been totaled as it had been in the attack we remembered from history. With approximately 800 fatalities though, the cost in human life was somewhat less.

\- Damage report: The USS _California_ reported damage due to bomb hitting its starboard upper deck.

The telephone rang. Admiral Kimmel picked it up, listening for a moment.

"Senator Clements? Yes, I will accept the call," said Admiral Kimmel. "Yes sir, we sure did get hit, but we managed to give a good account of ourselves. No sir, I'm not yet sure what the total cost is, but we're keeping our ears open for damage and casualty reports as we speak."

\- Damage report: The USS _Raleigh_ was also hit by one bomb (probably 500 pounds) which passed through three decks and out the ship's side, and finally exploded about fifty feet away. The damage from the explosion was not extensive.

" _This is Ady-1_ , _Fleet sighted, Fleet sighted! Approximate coordinates 29.12 degrees north, 158.44 degrees west. Jesus Christ almighty, I count four…no_ six _carriers and at least one battlewagon!"_

We exchanged glances. That must be one of the bomber pilots. "That sounds like Captain Bobby Hutch. B-17 pilot, he's a good man."

" _Roger Ady-1, commence attack at your discretion. I want at least one carrier taken out, but beyond that just slow 'em down. Submarines can even the score."_

"That's General Short giving the order to attack," said the admiral as he grabbed another phone:

"Submarines on station, Japanese strike force sighted at approximately 29.12 degrees north, 158.44 degrees west. Don't go chasing after what you can't catch, but finish off whatever wounded ships the Air Force leaves you."

On Hutch's order, fifty-eight bombers, five squadrons made up of B-17's, B-18's and A-20's prepared their ordinance and their attack configuration. The heavy bombers flew at the highest possible altitude, around 16,000 feet, to maintain a safety margin while still having a reasonable chance of hitting their targets. The thirteen plane A-20 squadron held back, they would dive in to press any successful bomb hits. The B-18s were each loaded with eight 500 pound general purpose bombs, while the B-17s and A-20s had 24 and 16 200 pound bombs.

" _Squadron Baker, I want you to take out the trailing carrier while Able takes out the one in front of it. Charlie Squadron, attack the battleship. Dog and Easy Squadron hold back and attack after we have released our loads, then attack at your discretion. Our goal is to cripple one carrier and one battleship and get back home! Execute!"_

"Level bombers against naval ships," I asked. "Will they be able to hit them?"

Kimmel's forehead wrinkled. "They're good at what they do, as far as I know, but from that altitude…maybe one of every ten bombers will come close. On the other hand, 'close' might be enough. The _New Jersey_ was sunk with bombs and water pressure. As for this…we'll have to wait and see."

 **IJN Carrier Akagi –** _ **Approximately 29.12 degrees north, 158.44 degrees west**_

"Admiral, American bombers have been spotted to the southeast!" Nagumo turned to the lieutenant. "Bombers? How many and what kind?"

"They appear to be land-based B-17s and B-18s, perhaps fifty or more; they come without fighter escort."

"And we are ourselves without fighter cover of any significance," replied Nagumo. Launch whatever _Zero-sen_ we can muster.

 **B-17C, AAF S/N** _ **40-2049**_

The bombers shook as dark flak exploded about them

"Bombardier to captain, they've got planes on the deck!"

"Roger…are you ready to take over? Able squadron is weapons free, but they'll be looking to us hit pickle barrel."

"Ready!"

"Autopilot engaged, you're flying it!"

Michael Behan made small adjustments as the cobalt blue of the North Pacific parted to reveal the edges of the carrier through the Norden bombsight. Not yet, he told himself, then as the carrier's island appeared, he flipped the bomb release switch, releasing four tons of high explosive.

"Bombs away!"

"Ball turret confirms; bombs away!"

"Roger, bombs away, gunners get ready for contacts!"

Captain Hutch peeled off, looking for any signs of damage to the carrier. The other B-17s composing the squadron also released their loads, but not before at least three of them sprouted plumes of oily smoke from one or more engines.

No damage could be seen on the aircraft carrier, though several grey smoke clouds showed that they had at least come close.

"Bombs released, are we heading back to base?"

"Negative, negative, we remain to provide cover for the other squadrons, then head back as a wing!"

The gunners from each bomber fired towards the ships with the intention of suppressing the defensive fire. Baker squadron began its run.

"HIT! Direct hit on the carrier!" At least two 500lb bombs landed on the foreword end of the _**Hiryū**_ while other bombs landed in the waters, shattering the ship's integrity.

"Holy mother-!"

"Looks a lot better when they get it!"

"Alright, knock it off! We got a carrier, let's finish off a battleship. Charlie squadron, your turn at bat, the rest of us will cover you!"

"Bandits…bandits…two o'clock low! Over two dozen!"

By now the Japanese carriers had been able to muster whatever fighters they could and were steadily climbing towards the bomb wing.

"Charlie squadron! Break off the attack, let's get outta here!" Pilots wrenched their planes to the left and pushed their throttles to full power.

"Tail gunners, get ready!" With a fifty knot airspeed difference, there was no way that the Zeroes weren't going to catch up.

 **Pacific Fleet Headquarters -** **Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – December 7, 1941 - 16:22**

Kimmel switched off the radio. "I guess that was the last of them," he said sadly. The bombers did well, shooting down at least eight of the A6Ms, but the remaining Zeroes finished off the whole wing.

"You'll send PBY's after them, yes? To retrieve survivors?"

"Right now, Yukari, there is no air cover and the _Enterprise_ cannot be risked. We'll tell the submarine task force to look for survivors. American _and_ Japanese." He sat in a thick leather chair, steepling his fingers and staring at the ceiling. "As for all of you, I'm not sure yet how to proceed. You've saved American lives, and probably my naval career, but your nationality will doubtless raise some eyebrows…yes, I think yours too, Clara."

"We are fairly alarmed about that prospect, sir." Kimmel nodded to me as the phone rang. He picked up the receiver and answered. His eyes widened slightly.

"Ladies, could you excuse me for a few minutes," he asked, motioning towards the door. "Don't go too far outside."

Outside, we stared at the results of the day. The acrid smell of smoke and worse was everywhere. Ships had been saved, but Japanese pilots of shattered planes had not been very considerate about where they would spend their last instant on earth, several buildings were still smoldering.

" _O, Bozhe!_ " exclaimed Clara. "I had read history…but this?"

" _Da_ ," said Shinobu. "And imagine how bad it could have been if we said nothing."

"Did we really help though," I asked. "I mean we may have saved our skins and Admiral Kimmel's…but was there really a net gain in lives?"

Yukari put her arm around me. "We know this war did and will go badly for Japan, Miporin. And we would not help things by being there now."

How I hoped she was right.

 **Hospital Ship USS** _ **Solace**_ **– Pearl Harbor, Hawaii**

She moaned loudly, her whole right side a storm of aches and sharp pain. Where was she, she thought, totally disoriented.

" _Ho ho!_ _Chīsana hito ga mewosamasu_!" ( _Ho ho! The little one awakes!_ )

Japanese? But wasn't she… Oh, now she remembered. She looked to her left and saw a man's face, or what she could see of him through the heavy bandages, smiling down on her.

"Tanaguchi," he offered. "Tanaguchi Tomio. I heard them working on you in surgery a few hours ago. You were very close to meeting the gods, from what I understood of them."

" _Hai?_ Oh, forgive me. Satsuki Kamata, but my friends call me Katyusha. Where is this place?"

"You're on a hospital ship, somewhere in the middle of Pearl Harbor. How was it that you were hurt?"

Katyusha paused. She remembered exactly what happened, but didn't think it wise to tell him just yet. "Shot in the back, I think, don't remember much after that. And you?"

"More or less the same. AA…antiaircraft fire destroyed my wing as I was flying low. I slammed into a building, then spun into the harbor."

"You were fortunate the Detroit's whaleboat was there to pick you up, Lieutenant." Katyusha noticed the man speaking, a doctor's insignia on the collar. "And I am pleased to see you're awake, Satsuki-chan," he said with a polite bow. "You had us frightened for a while."

Katyusha bit her lip. "How bad was it, Doctor?" The doctor removed a small plastic bag from his coat, showing three pieces of metal. One was obviously a bullet, the other two seemed like they might fit together.

"You were hit by three of these. One went through you on your right, and into the ground, you have a nice exit wound that'll need to be medicated to prevent infection. This whole bullet clipped your kidney, we were able to patch it up – but I want you to remain hydrated to help it heal and flush out any toxins. It also shattered your 12th rib and spun around a bit…there was massive internal bleeding. Thanks to that bullet, and this other one, we had to remove part of your liver." Katyusha's eyes welled with tears. He squeezed her hand gently. "Liver regenerates," he assured her. "In a month, you'll be good as new."

"What caliber of bullets were those, Doctor?" asked Tanaguchi. "I'm afraid that's classified, Lieutenant." He turned back to Katyusha. "You'll have some healing to do, but believe it or not, you should be able to walk out of here tomorrow morning." He paused then, as if debating whether or not he should raise the point. "One other question, if you'll pardon my curiosity. How old are you, Miss Satsuki?"

She smiled at this, she had so gotten used to being asked that question after all those years of riding Nonna's shoulders. "I am a small girl, but I am still seventeen."

"All right. The reason I was asking this is that we found irregularities in your blood. Had you been taking any medications that block the production of estrogen?"

"Not unless aspirin has that effect. What are you getting at?"

"Katyusha, we found traces of chemicals that have been known to affect the endocrine system. I presume that this was done without your knowledge, but I thought I should let you know. You might find yourself growing up a bit over the next few months."

Katyusha sat back, stunned. How in the world? " _Oishasan, arigatō gozaimasu._ " she said distractedly.

"You are very welcome Katyusha, Try to rest up a bit; we'll get you back on dry land tomorrow morning."

 **Pacific Fleet Headquarters -** **Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – December 7, 1941**

We had been waiting outside, as the "few minutes" stretched into an hour or so. We were asked for identification several times, and to our surprise and relief, the explanation was accepted each time. Finally Admiral Kimmel came out to greet us.

"I have two bits of news. First, I received word that your little friend Katyusha is alive and awake, and is going to be released tomorrow."

At that, we felt tears, joyful tears fill our eyes and we warmly embraced each other.

"She's really okay, Admiral? No permanent damage?"

"She'll have some scars, but nothing serious Clara." He then continued.

"As you know, the IJN has also struck American and British interests in the Phillipines, Guam, Hong Kong and other places. That being the case, and based on what we did here, I've been called to testify before Congress…so I will be leaving tomorrow morning."

So what would we do while he was gone, I wondered.

"They're also very curious about the girls who gave warning when they could, so all of you will be coming with me."

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE - I do apologize for the wait, but real life research projects kind of get in the way. It's a fun but difficult story to write, trying to balance historical realities and figuring out the mindset of people involved.**


	7. Chapter 7

The Orient Clipper, run by the Pan American Airways Company, ran weekly flights between San Francisco and Manila in the Philippines. It was an odd stroke of luck that the inbound plane, a Martin M-130, had arrived from Midway Island yesterday morning and had not suffered a scratch in the attack.

We had gotten up early, skies still dark and were pleased to see a jeep delivering a groggy Katyusha to our doorstep. Her torso was bandaged and her weariness was due not only to unsettled and sore sleep but from a heavy dose of codeine.

Admiral Kimmel got on one knee and held her steady. "We're going to be traveling to the mainland at noon, Katyusha. Are you going to be able to fly?"

" _Hai_ … _da_ …eeeyep…" she replied dreamily.

"Okay, get her downstairs and let her sleep for four hours."

Yukari took her by the shoulders. "Come on, Katyusha…."

"Yes, Sergeant Oddball," she answered in a punchy voice. _Rastvetaly yablani i grushchi, populi, tumany nad rekoi_ …"

The rest of us looked at each other and burst out laughing

"Hey, cool it with them negative waves, man!" countered Yukari, winking.

Of course we had heard Roosevelt's speech before, but to be there in the moment as it was happening, with the commander of the American Pacific Fleet and his officers and enlisted staff, that was something special.

" _Mister Vice-President, Mister Speaker, members of the Senate and House of Representatives. Yesterday, December seventh, nineteen forty-one…"_

I didn't realize that I was mouthing the words myself until I noticed Yukari, Erwin, and Clara doing the same thing – and the looks of shock from the CINPACFLT staff. Erwin proved her mettle as a historian – and insufferable show-off – as she continued to mouth Roosevelt's words immediately before he spoke them.

" _It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago."_

And a few moments later, FDR managed to shut her up. Or perhaps we did.

" _I regret to tell you that many American lives have been lost – however, despite the nature of the attack, the men of our Navy and Air Force proved themselves equal to the challenge of the attack and we inflicted heavy losses and captured several dozen Japanese airmen and sailors."_

And that was the only change we had made. Despite our warnings and defense, the Japanese Empire attacked the Philippines, Hong Kong, Wake Island and several other bases in the Pacific as history had recorded.

" _I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of_ war _has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."_

"Holy crap," said one of the lieutenants. "You girls really are from the future, aren't you?"

"The twenty-teens," said Erwin casually. "Congress will vote in favor of war. With the way your men fought back against the attack, there may be one or two others who vote no, but as we remember it, it was only Jeanette Rankin who voted against it."

A young sailor, sleeves bare of any insignia asked nervously, "But we do win, right?"

"I'm not answering that question, Seaman. That's up to you and your shipmates."

Admiral Kimmel laughed sharply. "That's a good answer, Riko, thank you. And she's right. Whatever happens over the course of this war is going to be a result of the decisions we make, and nothing is etched in stone until you make it happen. And what we are going to make happen over the next four hours is determine what we have available and how we're going to use it. Naturally, nothing we discuss, or what has been disclosed here will leave this room. Ladies, you are welcome to offer any information you may have."

Try as I might to summon my inner Mika, the best I could offer was, "Whatever knowledge we might have had changed the moment we defended, and whatever strategy you plan will be better than anything I can conceive. We are practitioners of sensha-dō – The Way of the Tank – we are not the Blue Mermaids." Never mind that we lived on an aircraft carrier that could use the ones he commanded as boats.

"Tankery? Like armored warfare?"

" _Hai_! It's a girl's sport in our future, Commander."

"Huh? Admiral, maybe we should send them to Fort Knox," suggested Commander Curts.

"I'd thought about it and I'll mention it in my report, but it's not my call, Germany. Though that is part of the reason we're going to the mainland in a few hours."

We politely excused ourselves and made our way to the break room where we listened to the radio and kept an eye on Katyusha, giggling as she would often issue orders in her sleep.

"What is 'purging,' Clara?"

"Purging, Shinobu, is when the misbehaving party is sent to do extra homework in our little version of Siberia on the _Kiev._ Though I am not certain it is an effective form of discipline.

Winston Churchill was announcing that Britain was declaring war on Japan as a result of its attack on Malaya, and would not be waiting for the declaration from America's congress when Katyusha finally awoke.

"Unnnnngh…where am I now? Clara!?"

"You are in the headquarters of the American Pacific Fleet. Japan is now at war with America and England."

Katyusha's eyes widened. "Is it still 1941?"

Clara chuckled. "Yes, as far as we know all four of our countries are still friends in our own time. How do you feel, Katyusha?"

She rubbed her side gingerly, wincing somewhat. "Still very sore. But feeling…very lucky." She appeared to remember something, and reached around for her purse, from where she pulled out a small plastic bag. "Mitsubishi A6M machine gun bullets," she said, fingering the three lumps of lead. "Good thing he didn't use his cannon."

Indeed. Three rounds from that would have nearly torn her in half. Katyusha closed her eyes, relaxing. We all thought it best to let her get all the sleep she could until it was time to go.

We waited a few more hours before we were rustled up by the Admiral and Mrs. Kimmel and we all piled into three waiting cars that drove us to the airport and the waiting Pan American flying boat.

"Admiral Kimmel, sir!" said the captain as we arrived. "You're in luck; we just had one other group with a reservation on board – but it's still going to be crowded. You said you needed passage for nine?"

"Yes, me, my wife, and these seven young ladies. It is a national security concern that we get them all to San Francisco."

"What isn't a national security concern nowadays? But if you're vouching for them, I won't argue with you." He looked us over. "Are they Chinese?"

"Japanese, except for Clara. And yes I will vouch for all of them." The captain pursed his lips momentarily, then shrugged.

"Yessir. Go ahead and find yourselves a seat and make yourselves comfortable. We'll be taking off within ten minutes.

Unlike the modern airliners we were used to, the flying boats of the 1930's and 1940's were arranged in a cabin layout, with couches set facing each other. Seat belts were the only way to tell the difference. As we buckled in, one of the stewards, they were all male, noticed that Katyusha was struggling a bit – wincing in pain and taking deep breaths.

"Is she all right?"

"She's recovering from having gotten shot in the back by a Zero yesterday," answered Yukari. "But we're keeping an eye on her." The man's eyes widened. "Yes ma'am. Let us know if there is anything we can do."

After settling in, we felt the plane moving backwards, down the ramp and into the water. Following the safety briefing, the four engines started up and we taxied out for takeoff. I assumed that any Japanese submarines would by now be steaming for home, but I knew that there was always a chance that there would still be one or two in the area. When we finally lifted off, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

There isn't much to do on such a long flight, and once we reached our cruising altitude we mingled with the crew and other passengers. All talk of time travel was off limits naturally, but the obvious talk was what had happened yesterday. We kept our story as close to the truth as possible, that we were Japanese students disillusioned with the current regime.

"But surely, your families must be concerned about you!"

Surely. We had seriously considered that reality over the past few days. Would our efforts be reflected in the historical record that our parents might somehow know, or would our families be doomed to wonder whatever happened to their daughters? And how would they judge what we already did and what we are willing to do? To this point, we hadn't come up with a comforting answer.

"You're right," I answered. "You are certainly right, and it breaks our hearts to do this to them. I can only hope they forgive us when all this is settled."

"Do your parents believe Japan can win this war?"

"I'm amazed _anyone_ thinks Japan can win this war. It would take a total morale collapse from both America and Britain for Japan to even retain its sovereignty now…but good men and women will die on both sides before this is proven to be the case."

"Where are you going after we reach 'Frisco?"

Where were we going? I assumed that we wouldn't be staying on the West Coast; we would be too much of a security threat to consider allowing us to stay. My stomach sank momentarily as I considered the possibility that we were indeed heading to a prison of some sort, but I shook off that possibility as paranoid nonsense.

"You've answered enough questions, Miho," interrupted Kimmel. I scooted back to my seat. "Give the poor girl a break, sir," I overheard him saying with a chuckle. "We'll be heading to Washington either by plane or train, not yet sure which. They'll be wanting me to account for what happened yesterday, you see, and they'll want the girls' testimony to give the senior chiefs some insight on what we can expect from this new enemy of ours."

"They aren't blaming you for the attack, are they?"

"Oh, I'm sure there'll be a bit of scapegoating, but I'm confident they'll make the right choice when all is said and done."

They continued to talk and I continued to wander around the aircraft. The crew had been courteous enough to tune one of the ADF's to both Honolulu and San Diego news channels, so we were able to listen to talk of the war. The Dutch government, operating in exile, had declared war on Japan. The Soviet Sixteenth Army had recaptured Krijukovo from the Germans. As the sky darkened, the radio switched from news to big band music, music that was a pleasure to dine to. I had heard stories about Pan Am and "the golden era of aviation," and I have to say that they were fully justified: Chicken and string beans with potato au gratin, strawberry shortcake for dessert. Having eaten my fill, I headed to our cabin for some sleep.

The drone of the engines was relaxing, but sleep didn't come easy, they were still pretty loud. I must have drifted off eventually, as my next moment of awareness in the dark was the red and orange of the rising sun.

Er, ah, the actual rising sun, not the…well anyway. December ninth began and soon we were turning and descending past the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay. We bumped along as we landed in San Francisco Bay and then taxied to and up the ramp to San Francisco airport.

After the engines were shut off, the captain came back to see us. "Admiral, you said you were going on to DC from here?"

"That's what we had in mind."

"Well, with the war and all, it doesn't look like we're going to be heading back to Hong Kong any time soon. My officers are pretty much at the duty time limit, but we'll get another crew in this evening And I guarantee you that the Martin will get you into Washington faster than any train or DC-3."

"So we have nearly a full day to explore San Francisco?" asked Clara.

"If that's what you want to do. What do you think Admiral, can we trust these 'enemy civilians' to let them roam around the city?"

Admiral Kimmel saw the smile in the captain's eyes and returned it. "These young ladies? Harmless as kittens, right girls?"

Yukari and Erwin shared a look and a grin:

"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur…"

We all joined the melody.

" _HAPPY KITTY, SLEEPY KITTY…PURR, PURR, PURR!"_

Kimmel shrugged. "Yeah, they'll be fine."

"Ohhh kayyy. I'll make a note for the crew to expect you. You'll need to be here a little before six tonight. Pan American does have plenty of cots right here at the airport, so feel free to use them if you like. Until then, you go ahead and enjoy the city." The captain and admiral shook hands, and the captain then bowed perfectly and bid us farewell.

Kimmel wasn't about to let us go off on our own, despite our assurances that we would be fine. Perhaps he was right, after all, none of us had ever been to San Francisco in the 21st century, and he and Dorothy were both familiar with the area.

The people of San Francisco seemed angry and determined in light of the recent events, not emotions that one usually associates with the city, young men – several whom were younger than the US military allowed, I'm sure, were lined up in front of the recruiting office. Despite this, we were treated with guarded courtesy for the most part. The news was good for Japan; the Empire's troops landed on the beaches of the Malay Peninsula and occupied Bangkok.

We did the usual tourist things, the trolley cars, Golden Gate bridge and Coit Tower, and feasted on local delicacies such as crab meat and sourdough bread at Fisherman's wharf. We got back to the airport a little after five where we were met by the new crew, boarded the plane, and were soon back on the water and in the air heading east.

Departure from San Francisco had been timed so that we would arrive in Washington the next day, the tenth. Another long flight and we were all agreed that we missed the big jets. With a refueling stop in Saint Louis, we arrived in Washington around ten in the morning.

We were greeted by several cars and a bespectacled grey admiral who had more stripes than Kimmel did.

"Welcome back, Kim," he said grimly after the exchange of salutes. "You're going to have to fill me in as to why we had to rely on Japanese schoolgirls to keep our Pacific fleet from being destroyed.

"I'd be happy to do that, Admiral Stark. Some information from intelligence over the past few months would have been invaluable. But let's not waste our time on recriminations; the fact is that we did get the help we needed when we needed it. Did you want to talk to these girls about how they knew what they knew?"

Stark grunted. "I'm sure it would be a fascinating conversation, but it will have to wait. Thomas here will take Dorothy to your hotel. You and the girls will accompany me to meet the man who insisted on speaking with all of you. Who's the leader of the ladies, anyway?"

That question brought Kimmel up short. "Well…Yukari, the girl with the fluffy hair speaks the best English, but Miho Nishizumi seems to be the leader, despite her shy nature." I felt myself blush. "Riko Matsumoto is their historian, and she'll talk your ear off if you let her."

Yukari, Erwin, and I wound up traveling in the same car with the two admirals, with the others behind us. Stark turned to Kimmel, as if to apologize for his severe attitude at the start.

"Look, don't worry about it Kim. You did what you could with a bad situation. The President just wants to know what might have happened and what we might do to prevent it in the future in case we don't that the benefit of ladies from the future next time."

"Wait," said Yukari. "The President? Franklin Delano Roosevelt?"

"The very same. He's taken quite an interest in you all. I'm not sure what you know about him, but just give him simple and direct answers. He appreciates that."

* * *

After a short drive from the airport we were taken to the White House, waved through security to our amazement, and escorted to the West Wing where we were greeted by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. He sat at his desk with Mrs. Roosevelt standing beside him.

"Come in! Come in! Kim, it's good to see you again! Helluva job you and your boys did on Sunday!"

"Yes sir, they sure did!" answered the admiral. FDR then turned to us, bowing his head.

"And you are the seven young ladies who helped Admiral Kimmel save my fleet. In your respective countries, I believe the appropriate response is _spasibo bolshoi, Klara_ , and _arigatou gozaimashita_ , for the rest of you. The United States is most grateful for your courage."

We stood, bowed, and sat. The President clapped his hands together and then wheeled out from his desk to where we were seated. "Which of you is our historian?" Erwin raised her hand shyly.

"Matsumoto Riko, correct?" Erwin nodded. "Erwin, can you tell me how I managed to be in these braces and wheelchair?"

"You contracted polio when you were eighteen, sir. But it may please you to know that a vaccine will be developed in about twenty years that will spare many others." FDR nodded, smiling. "I _am_ pleased to hear that."

"I'm curious," FDR said, speaking to us as a group, "how you decided to go against Japan and notify the proper authorities of what would happen on Sunday. I imagine that you had to do some soul searching over that."

" _Hai!"_ exclaimed Katyusha. "Katyusha was at first against it, even though this war…well against the manufacturing power of America, the result seems inevitable." Katyusha took a shaky breath. "Japan cannot defeat United States; it can only delay the inevitable at a cost of tens of thousands (right Erwin?) of American lives." She looked into Roosevelt's blue eyes with her own. "And millions of Japanese. But I think we still have doubts. Have we committed treason…or would it be treason to Japan not to say anything?"

FDR nodded soberly. "Would I be right in assuming that your motivation – other than avoiding being imprisoned as enemy nationals, of course – is to hasten the end of the war in order to minimize casualties?"

What else could I say? Of course we wanted both and we assured the President that his assumption was correct.

"Ladies, I can assure you that you will not be imprisoned, assuming that you aren't planning on robbing any banks or committing any murders while you're here, so you can put that anxiety to rest. I presume that you wish, if such was possible, to return to the early twenty-first century?"

"We would like that very much sir!"

"And if I could, I would gladly grant you your wish, Shinobu. Sadly, I can't. But I can discuss it with scientists who could point us in that direction. Just knowing that it's possible might be the one factor for them to make it happen. In the meantime, what would you like to do?"

I cleared my throat. "We would like to help against the Nazis if that is possible. Clara's country is fighting them anyway."

FDR shook his head vigorously. "I'm not putting young women in combat, Miho. Besides we're not at war with Germany, at least not as yet."

"I believe Hitler declares war on the United States the day after tomorrow," I offered.

Erwin shook her head. "Tomorrow, Miporin."

"Eh?"

"Hitler declares war tomorrow. It was December 12th in Japan, not in the West." I rolled my head, feeling foolish.

Roosevelt sighed. "I imagine Winston will be pushing us to finish off Germany first then."

" _Da_ , Mister President. And Iosef Stalin will be calling for second front the very next day!"

"Ha hah! I bet he would! Old Pug's been telling me that the Russians were looking for America to enter the fight right after Barbarossa! Well, I can't blame them for trying. We're practically at war with Germany even before Pearl Harbor." He turned to Erwin. "So you want to help fight the man you model yourself after."

"Hai! General Patton called him 'a magnificent bastard,' and he was…or, he _is_ a brilliant tactician and strategist. Yukari, she's a master when it comes to tanks themselves, we of the Ōarai _reki_ _-_ _jo_ dubbed her 'Guderian.' Nishizumi-dono tends to gravitate towards Michael Wittmann and Otto Carius, both German tank aces…"

"I like their tactical style, Erwin!"

"…but we all find the actions of Nazi Germany shameful. Right?"

" _SORE-DA!"_

Erwin smiled sheepishly. "It's a Hippo Team expression, Mr. President."

"Yes, Hippo Team, I see. You all participate in tank combat as a sport, isn't that right?"

" _Sensha-dō_ is the Japanese term. 'Way of the Tank' is the direct translation in English, or 'tankery' if you wish." I explained. "Except for Katyusha and Clara, who are students at Pravda Girls Academy, we are all members of the Ōarai Girls Academy team."

"Mihosha beat her old school – and her sister – to win the 63rd National Sensha-Dō Tournament. Pravda beat Kuromorimine the year before to win the 62nd."

"Impressive," said the President. "So your talents would perhaps include training others to fight in tanks?"

"Along with Captain Chuno – who really didn't do much – Nishizumi-dono taught us everything, made Ōarai champions with only eight tanks to work with, and saved our school from being shut down! Two times! And Katyusha is commander of Pravda!" I blushed at this, thanks Fluffy.

"You helped a lot, Yukari. Sir, Yukari and Erwin both went on surveillance missions. Yukari even snuck into Sauders and Anzio."

"Did she indeed?" said FDR. So with talents in armored warfare and scouting, yes, that could be very useful…"


End file.
